'TWO JOBS' MEDIC FACES NHS PROBE

A TOP NHS consultant is under investigation for holding down two jobs at the same time - at hospitals 200 miles apart.

Senior gynaecologist Noor Ahmed was paid up to pounds 93,000 per contract - and he had TWO, according to allegations.

Ahmed is said to have convinced one NHS trust in Blackburn to allow him sick leave and study periods while secretly going off to work in London.

Colleagues concerned about his absence from work raised the alarm. The NHS Counter Fraud Service was called in and Ahmed has been suspended from one hospital and resigned from the other.

CFS investigators will alert police if evidence suggests Ahmed is guilty.

Ahmed, 52, of Preston, Lancs, was employed for several years at Blackburn's Royal Infirmary.

He started a new post at St Mary's Hospital, London, on September 1, but allegedly kept billing both NHS Trusts.

CFS spokesman Darren Aldrich said: "The maximum sentence for a charge of deception is 10 years in jail."

Copyright 2006 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.